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Michel de Montaigne Quotes - Page 37

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I may indeed very well happen to contradict myself; but truth, as Demades said, I do not contradict.

I may indeed very well happen to contradict myself; but truth, as Demades said, I do not contradict.

Michel de Montaigne
May, Contradiction, Said

When we see a man with bad shoes, we say it is no wonder, if he is a shoemaker.

Michel de Montaigne
Men, Shoes, Wonder
"Essays", Book I, Chapter XXIV, as quoted in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations, p. 705-06, 1922.

The receipts of cookery are swelled to a volume, but a good stomach excels them all; to which nothing contributes more than industry and temperance.

Michel de Montaigne
Volume, Stomach, Temperance

Man (in good earnest) is a marvellous vain, fickle, and unstable subject, and on whom it is very hard to form any certain and uniform judgment.

Michel de Montaigne
Men, Fickle, Uniforms
Michel de Montaigne (2013). “Michel de Montaigne: Selected Essays”, p.3, Courier Corporation

To make judgements about great and lofty things, a soul of the same stature is needed; otherwise we ascribe to them that vice which is our own.

Michel de Montaigne
Judgement, Soul, Vices
'Essais' (1580) bk. 1, ch. 14 [References are to M. Rat's edition of the 'Essais' (1958) which, in accordance with the Strowski and Gebelin text (1906-33), conflates the 1580 edition of books 1 and 2, the revised and enlarged 1588 edition of all three books, and later manuscript additions published posthumously]

What of a truth that is bounded by these mountains and is falsehood to the world that lives beyond?

Michel de Montaigne
Life, Truth, Mountain
Michel de Montaigne (1973). “Selections from the Essays”, Harlan Davidson

Laws are maintained in credit, not because they are essentially just, but because they are laws. It is the mystical foundation of their authority; they have none other.

Michel de Montaigne
Power, Law, Justice
Michel de Montaigne (1964). “Selected essays of Montaigne: in the translation of John Florio”

Few men are admired by their servants.

Michel de Montaigne
Men, Admiration, Servant
"Essais". Book by Michel de Montaigne, Book III, ch. 2, "Of Repentance", c. 1592.

One man may have some special knowledge at first-hand about the character of a river or a spring, who otherwise knows only what everyone else knows. Yet to give currency to this shred of information, he will undertake to write on the whole science of physics. From this fault many great troubles spring.

Michel de Montaigne
Spring, Writing, Character
Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Essays”

There is little less trouble in governing a private family than a whole kingdom.

Michel de Montaigne
Parent, Littles, Kingdoms
Michel de Montaigne, George Savile Marquis of Halifax (1743). “Montaigne's Essays in Three Books: With Notes and Quotations. And an Account of the Author's Life. With a Short Character of the Author and Translator”, p.265

T is one and the same Nature that rolls on her course, and whoever has sufficiently considered the present state of things might certainly conclude as to both the future and the past.

Michel de Montaigne
Past, Might, States
Michel de Montaigne (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Michel de Montaigne (Illustrated)”, p.698, Delphi Classics

Truly man is a marvelously vain, diverse, and undulating object. It is hard to found any constant and uniform judgment on him.

Michel de Montaigne
Men, Diversity, Uniforms
Essais bk. 1, ch. 1 (1580)

Those that will combat use and custom by the strict rules of grammar do but jest

Michel de Montaigne
Use, Grammar, Combat
Michel de Montaigne, John Florio, Michael Innes (1928). “Montaigne's essays”

The relish of good and evil depends in a great measure upon the opinion we have of them.

Michel de Montaigne
Evil, Opinion, Cognitive Therapy
Michel de Montaigne (1811). “The Essays of Michael de Montaigne”, p.308

No wonder, said an Ancient, that chance has so much power over us, since it is by chance that we live.

Michel de Montaigne
Chance, Wonder, Ancient
Michel de Montaigne (1991). “The essays of Michel de Montaigne”, Lane, Allen

If these Essays were worthy of being judged, it might fall out, in my opinion, that they would not find much favour, either with common and vulgar minds, or with uncommon and eminent ones: the former would not find enough in them, the latter would find too much; they might manage to live somewhere in the middle region.

Michel de Montaigne
Fall, Mind, Favour

What harm cause not those huge draughts or pictures which wanton youth with chalk or coals draw in each passage, wall or stairs of our great houses, whence a cruel contempt of our natural store is bred in them?

Michel de Montaigne
Wall, House, Graffiti

We endeavor more that men should speak of us, than how and what they speak, and it sufficeth us that our name run in men's mouths, in what manner soever. It stemma that to be known is in some sort to have life and continuance in other men's keeping.

Michel de Montaigne
Running, Men, Names

I see this evident, that we willingly accord to piety only the services that flatter our passions.

Michel de Montaigne
Passion, Flattery, Accord
Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.323, Stanford University Press

The art of dining well is no slight art, the pleasure not a slight pleasure; neither the greatest captains nor the greatest philosophers have disdained the use or science of eating well.

Michel de Montaigne
Art, Food, Cooking
"Complete Works of Michel de Montaigne".

If my intentions were not to be read in my eyes and voice, I should not have survived so long without quarrels and without harm, seeing the indiscreet freedom with which I say, right or wrong, whatever comes into my head.

Michel de Montaigne
Eye, Voice, Long

Their pupils and their little charges are not nourished and fed by what they learn: the learning is passed from hand to hand with only one end in view: to show it off, to put into our accounts to entertain others with it, as though it were merely counters, useful for totting up and producing statements, but having no other use or currency. 'Apud alios loqui didicerunt, non ipsi secum' [They have learned how to talk with others, not with themselves]

Michel de Montaigne
Educational, Hands, Views
Michel de Montaigne (1991). “The essays of Michel de Montaigne”, Lane, Allen

My opinion is that we must lend ourselves to others and give ourselves only to ourselves. If my will happened to be prone to mortgage and attach itself, I would not last: I am too tender, both by nature and by practice.

Michel de Montaigne
Self, Practice, Giving
Michel de Montaigne (1976). “The Complete Essays of Montaigne”

The middle sort of historians (of which the most part are) spoil all; they will chew our meat for us.

Michel de Montaigne
History, Meat, Middle
Michel de Montaigne (1850). “Works, Comprising His Essays, Letters, and Journey Through Germany and Italy: With Notes from All the Commentators, Biographical and Bibliographical Notices &c., &c”, p.217

Books are a languid pleasure.

Michel de Montaigne
Book, Pleasure

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